Now that my author interviews are complete, I’m back to posting ‘Wednesday Excerpts’ from one of my own books.

This week I’m featuring a new scene from my newest ebook release, The Physician’s Irish Lady.

Excerpt:
Elliot paced from the parlor doorway to the entry door.

“You’re wearing a hole in the carpet, Elliot,” Aunt Millie warned.

“But it’s dark. Shouldn’t Keara be home by now?” He strode to his aunt, who stood outside the kitchen door.

“I’m sure she’s just fine. Maybe one of the children took ill, and she stayed to help Dorothy. Jeff will see her home.”

Elliot shook his head. “I think I should take a ride over there.”

A knock sounded at the front door. He flew to the door and yanked it open. Jeff Hobart supported a very pale Keara. Elliot reached for her. “What’s happened?”

Aunt Millie stepped around him as he guided Keara toward the parlor. “I’ll see to her,” Millie said. “You find out what you can from Jeff.”

Millie supported Keara until both women disappeared into the kitchen.

Elliot motioned Jeff into the parlor. The man sat on the edge of the settee, while Elliot perched on the chair.

Jeff shook his head. “He came out of nowhere.”

“Who?” Elliot’s mind whirled.

“A big man with an accent. Irish, I think it was.”

Elliot clenched his fist. “What did he do?”

“When I came round to the house, Dorothy told me Miss Fagan had just left. She wanted me to go after her and see her home…” Jeff ran a hand through his hair. “By the time I reached the gate, I saw a man carry her off into the woods. I yelled and fired off a shot. He ran off.” He grimaced. “Good thing I’d taken my shotgun with me. We’ve had critters coming round at night. Dorothy worried.”

“And Keara?” Elliot’s pulse raced.

“She was disheveled and frightened, but not hurt. I think she knew who the man was but wouldn’t tell me. She just wanted to go home.”

Elliot nodded. “I think I know who it was. The man goes by the name of Rogan Morrissey. The sheriff knows about him. If you see him again, let me or Jim know.”

“Sure will.” Jeff nodded.

Elliot rose, extending a hand. “Thank you for aiding Miss Fagan and seeing her home.”

“No need to thank me.” Jeff shook Elliot’s hand and bid him goodbye.

Elliot returned to the kitchen to find Aunt Millie alone. “I saw her up to bed, and I’ll make her some strong tea. She’s had quite an ordeal.”

“Jeff told me. It must be Morrissey. I’ll tell Jim to be on the lookout for the man, and we’ll have to take extra precautions with Miss Fagan.”

Millie set the teapot on the stove to boil and turned to face Elliot. “You have to marry her.”

“Pardon me?” Elliot’s mouth gaped.

“It’s the only way. If you believe she’s not married to the brute, you must marry her. It’s the only way you can protect her from him.”

In my new Amazon Kindle release, The Physician’s Irish Lady, the heroine, Keara Fagan, lived in Ireland until she was falsely accused of insurrection against the British and condemned to indentured servitude in Australia. She escaped long before her sentence was served onto a ship bound for America.

The nineteenth century ‘Irish Problem’ had sowed it’s seeds in the mid-seventeenth century. At that time, Britain was a republic ruled by Oliver Cromwell. He detested Roman Catholicism and believed that the Irish could not be trusted. In order to solve the Irish problem, he sent his New Model Army to coerce the Irish into obedience. He laid siege to Wexford and Grogheda, executing defenders from both towns. They’d been offered clemency only if they surrendered to Cromwell’s forces. Cromwell also planned to export children from Ireland to work in the sugar plantations in the West Indies, leading to a population loss to make the island less of a threat to Britain.

By the eighteenth century, farmland in Ireland became the property of English landlords. These absentee landlords showed little compassion to the people working the land. The rural Irish population lived in extreme poverty.

Europeans visiting Ireland were shocked by what they saw. “Now I have seen Ireland, it seems to me that the poorest among the Letts, the Estonians and the Finlanders lead a life of comparative luxury.” (Kohl, a German visitor to Ireland in the early 19th century)

Even into the nineteenth century, those who lived in rural Ireland were compared to peasants in Medieval England. The Irish had no rights with power resting in the hands of landlords.

Potatoes were the staple food of the Irish at this time, but the crop was susceptible to disease and famines, due to a failed crop, occurred often during the century.

Population growth exploded during this time, more than the growth in China. This likely was caused by the impact of the Catholic Church, which ruled against contraception and abortion and preached about the value of large families. And in this time period, people relied on many children to look after them in old age. However, feeding a large family when food was scarce, was a huge problem.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the Irish formed secret organizations that wanted the British out of Ireland so the island could be self-ruled. The tactics of these groups were brutal, including murder. Victorian England was horrified and the actions of these groups confirmed that the Irish could not be trusted.

My final author interview this month is Donna Michaels. Her new print release is COWBOY-SEXY.

Welcome, Donna. Tell us about COWBOY-SEXY and where it’s available.
Thank you for having me here today, Susan. COWBOY-SEXY is a heartwarming, funny book and part of the Honky Tonk Hearts Series with The Wild Rose Press. It’s available in eBook, Audio and now Print.

Blurb:
Finn Brennan was used to his brother playing practical jokes, but this time he’d gone too far–sending him a woman as a ranch hand, and not just a woman, but a Marine.

When Lt. Camilla Walker’s CO asks her to help out at his family’s dude ranch until he returns from deployment, she never expected to be thrust into a mistaken engagement to his sexy, cowboy twin–a former Navy SEAL who hates the Corps.

The Corps took Finn’s father, his girlfriend and threatened his naval career. He’s worked hard for another shot at getting back to active duty and won’t let his brother’s prank interfere. The last thing he needs is the temptation of a headstrong, unyielding, hot Marine getting in the way.

In what seemed like minutes the alarm went off, blasting rock music through the room. Finn staggered toward the nightstand, surprised at how well he had slept.

He shut the alarm off and looked at the bed to see if the noise had awoken Cammie. He blinked.

The bed was empty.

Was she already downstairs? A slight movement on the floor caught his attention. He glanced down to find his roommate sitting, rubbing her eyes as she yawned.

“It’s morning already?”

“What the hell are you doing?”

She stilled, then dropped her arms and looked up. Her tussled hair tumbled haphazardly down her back and shoulders, while her eyes and lips still wore sleep’s kiss.

His insides fisted. No woman should look that beautiful and sexy first thing in the morning.

“What’s it look like, Sherlock?” She borrowed his phrase from the night before. “I’m getting up.”

“Why?”

“Because the alarm went off.”

“No, I mean why did you sleep on the floor?”

“Because there was a squid on the couch.”

He closed his eyes and counted to ten. When he reopened them, Cammie was standing just a few feet away.

“You were supposed to sleep in the bed.”

“No, you were. It’s your bed.”

“Damn it, woman. Listen to reason.”

“I will when I hear it.” She turned around and marched to the bathroom.

Finn stared after her.

What the hell just happened?

Great excerpt and that is one sexy cover!

Do you feel as if the characters live with you as you write? Do they haunt your dreams?
Sometimes the characters do stay with me as I write. In the case of COWBOY-SEXY they were constantly around and practically wrote the book. There was no disconnect. They didn’t shut up, even when I slept. I got images of them in my dreams. Truly made writing a joy. I wish this experience on all my author friends, and that it would happen with all my stories. Unfortunately, it doesn’t.

What’s next for you?

In early December, I have a new release, HER UNIFORM COWBOY –Book 3 in my Harland County Series. Kade Dalton is another military cowboy hero, this time he’s in the Texas Army National Guard, he’s also a horse rancher and the Harland County Sheriff. Yes, a busy man. But he has issues, as does my heroine, Brandi Wyne. She suffers from a thyroid disease and is a designer, but never told her friends that she used to be a violinist in the philharmonic and in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. I like to keep my protagonists real with real issues.

Sounds great!

HER UNIFORM COWBOY will be FREE for the first three days of release. Please keep an eye on my website to look for the download link.

Thank you so much for joining me at Susan’s blog today! Please leave a comment and I’ll be giving away a FREE print book of COWBOY-SEXY to one lucky commenter. And don’t forget to keep an eye on my website for the download link when Her Uniform Cowboy is FREE next month!
Thanks for reading, and good luck!!
~Donna

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. While she was still young her family relocated to Boston, Massachusetts. She obtained most of her education from her father, who was a teacher. The family later moved to Concord where author and friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson, helped them set up residence. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/ALCOTT/ABOUTLA.html

Louisa received guidance from him as well as Theodore Parker and was also instructed by Henry David Thoreau.

She began writing at an early age and penned her first book by age sixteen. Louisa also helped her family make ends meet by taking in sewing, and working as a teacher and domestic servant. She tried acting at age seventeen, but preferred to write plays, rather than perform in them.

At age 30, she entered the nursing sevice at the Union Hospital in Georgetown in 1862. While there, she contracted typhoid fever. She recovered, but suffered the effects of mercury poisoning the rest of her life. At the time calomel (a drug laden with mercury) was used by doctors as a cure for typhoid.

While in Washington, Louisa wrote Hospital Sketches, published in 1863, followed by Moods in 1864.

She next produced the novel, Little Women, published September 30, 1868. She based the book on her own experience growing up. The book sold more than 2,000 copies. She next wrote a second volume that sold more than 13,000 copies.

Follow Blog via Email

Victorian Romance

About the Author

Susan Macatee writes American Civil War romance, some with a paranormal twist. From time travels to vampire tales, her stories are always full of love and adventure.

She’s spent many years as a Civil War civilian reenactor with the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment. She's a wife, mother of three grown sons, and has recently become a grandmother. She spends her free time inhaling books, watching baseball games and favorite old movies.